1. Macdowall, et al., (2013) surveyed 15,162 British men and women aged 16-74 years to estimate the incidence of non-volitional sex in the population. They found that one in five women and one in 20 men in Britain had experienced attempted sex against their will (Macdowall et al., 2013).
2. More disturbingly, they also discovered that 57.8% of women and 67.4% of men never told anyone about what had happened to them.
3. There are a multitude of reasons why older men and women who have been victims of sexual assault might be reluctant to talk about the experience, but surely progressive school Sex and Relationships Education is now helping to diminish the stigma attached to reporting these crimes?
4. Nope. A depressing survey of over 2,000 British 11-25 year-olds, which was carried out by The Sex Education Forum reveals that most young people are not even taught how to recognize sexually abusive behavior, let alone how to get help if it happens to them.
5. The study found that 50% of young people were not taught what to do, or who to talk to if they were abused, and 44% had not been taught how to tell whether a relationship was healthy, or abusive. Over half of young people (53%) had not been taught to spot the signs of grooming for sexual exploitation in other children.
6. Lessons about sexual consent are not routinely covered in schools either. A third (34%) of young people said they had learnt nothing about sexual consent and 50% of young people had never discussed real-life scenarios about consent.
7. At primary level, 50% of children surveyed had not learnt how to get help if they experienced unwanted touching, or sexual abuse; 16% had not learnt the correct names for genitalia, and 17% had never learnt that the genitals are private.
8. Overall, just 10% of the young people in the survey said the Sex and Relationships Education that they received was 'very good', whereas 22% said it was 'bad' or 'very bad'.
9. Lucy Emmerson, Coordinator of the Sex Education Forum, concluded that "The odds of a young person learning vital information about equal, safe and enjoyable relationships are no different than the toss of a coin. The ultimate consequence of this is that many children don't know how to recognise abusive behaviour, or how to seek help.
10. Full details about the survey can be found in: Heads or Tails: What young people tell us about sex and relationships education
